A Different Perspective
by StarCloud
Summary: Tifa realizes that Cloud has indeed chosen Aerith over her. She comes to terms with it over a beer, a pack of cigarettes and a badmouth pilot.


**A Different Perspective **

**Enchantments Lost**

The brunette sighed and watched as the young blonde man was escorted out of the hotel by the flower girl. She had had her chance with Cloud, and who was she to begrudge Aerith her own chance at the young solider when she herself had failed so miserably? Thus Tifa was left alone on Enchantment Night, the most romantic night in the Gold Saucer…and she was spending it with a mug of beer.

She wasn't the only one it seemed, because a little further down sat a grumpy pilot, who was quite pissed at the moment because the hotel staff had forbidden him to smoke in the hotel. He could've just gone outside and smoked, but the hotel staff had confiscated his cigarettes. A bit pissed off, he had taken up residence at the bar and started complaining loudly, scaring off any potential customers.

The brunette watched with an bemused stare as the disgruntled pilot cursed rather violently about how his beer tasted weak and the lady passing by covered her young daughter's ears. Chuckling to herself she went over and sat down by the pilot.

"Someone missed his afternoon nap," Tifa said.

He glared at her. "Shit, I'm not that old."

"You know," she continued. "I'm sure if you had just asked for them back politely they would have given them to you."

He snorted and a swig of his beer, sloshing it as he roughly placed it down. "Hell, if everything was that simple I would've been up in space already."

Tifa sighed and rolled her eyes. "Watch and learn," she said, patting him on the shoulder as she rose from her stool.

She walked over to the barman, a look of intense distress on her features. She leaned over the counter and sighed, her eyes downcast and her gloved hands cupping her chin. Her breasts were resting on the counter, arms framing them and making them appear bigger than they were.

The barman blushed furiously as his eyes caught on her breasts and the way the white material stretched out against them.

"W..what's the problem, ma'am?"

"Oh, I've just had a really rough day. All this traveling, no one to have on Enchantment Night, and then there's that vulgar man over there."

"I can kick him out if you like," the barman said eagerly.

"Oh no, I'd rather just have a cigarette. But I don't have any." She shifted a bit, pushing her cleavage up more as she looked at him with sorrowful eyes tinged with hope. "I don't suppose you have any, do you?"

"Oh yeah, sure." He hurriedly pulled out Cid's confiscated pack and handed the whole thing over to her. "There's a lighter inside," he supplied helpfully.

She smiled brightly at him and leaned over, kissing him on the cheek. "You're such a dear." With that she turned around, her ponytail whipping violently behind her. The barman was too dazed to notice as she grinned mischievously at a gaping Cid and wiggled his cigarette pack at him. She walked out of the bar, hips swaying in tune with her ponytail, and Cid followed, a dumbstruck look still on his face.

They met up outside, near the bottom of the steps leading to the hotel. She handed him his cigarettes and he eagerly slid one out, put the pack behind his goggle strap, and lighted up. After a long, drawn out inhale of the drug, he looked back at Tifa, disbelief written on his face.

"Women." The brunette let out a laugh.

With that the two sat in silence until Cid finished his cigarette. Tifa watched with amusement, in wonder on how Cid was akin to a man without water when he was deprived of his beloved cigarettes. She turned her gaze up to the stars and just enjoyed the peaceful moment. He only spoke again after he lighted up his second and was halfway through it. His brain seemed to be functioning again then.

"Hey, why aren't you with that spiky headed fool?"

Tifa's demeanor changed drastically. She shifted uncomfortably, eyes darting off to the side as her hands fiddled with the hem of her skirt. Cid noticed the sudden actions and let out a puff of smoke into the cool night air. Wordlessly he offered her his cigarette.

She smiled sadly and shook her head. "No, I'm okay." He brought it back and took another drag out of it. "I had my chance anyway," she said more quietly, but the words drifted to him all the same.

The two companions drifted into a comfortable silence, sitting together under a speckled sky, Cid methodically smoking his cigarettes and Tifa enjoying the quiet. It wasn't the same silence she endured with Cloud. That silence was suffocating. She always felt forgotten around him. He was so determined and focused. And then there was always the looming thought that Aerith was foremost in his mind. She loved Aerith like a friend, she was truly happy for her and Cloud, but some part of her was also jealous. Aerith, a kind sweet natured girl who seemed to have just fallen from heaven, had given Cloud everything that she had wanted to give the ex-SOLIDER.

The serene view was punctured by the sudden explosion of multi-colored fireworks, violently lighting up the sky and interrupting the brooding brunette's thoughts. She looked up at them in awe, the colors reflecting in her wine colored orbs. They shifted over to her companion, who was also watching the sky now. Focusing back on the fireworks she said,

"I wonder what they look like from space."

There was a pause as the pilot dropped his cigarette butt and squashed it out with the heel of his boot.

"You wouldn't even be able to see them."

Tifa turned slightly to Cid. "Oh? But they seem so big."

"Everything seems big from down here. Up there, you get a different perspective."

---

A/N: Don't own FF7 in any way, shape or form. Not sure if you should expect a continuation of this. I was planning on it but..well...school and all, you know? So don't expect much for awhile.


End file.
